A short film about St George is snatching the English patron saint from the jaws of white nationalism. The 90 second film paints St George in his true colours – as a symbol of multiculturalism.
Director Kate McMullen said, “People think of St George as a white knight on a white horse with a right-wing agenda – but the evidence reveals someone very different. We don’t know what colour his horse was, but we do know that George was born in Turkey to a Greek father and Palestinian mother, an immigrant most of his life, persecuted for his ‘strange middle Eastern beliefs’. It’s an eclectic story that has been hidden behind a false narrative for centuries.”
The time was ripe to reclaim the English patron saint, says Kate. “In today’s climate of fake news and divisive clickbait, the facts matter more than ever. When you dig deeper, you discover common ground. The ‘tabloid’ St George excluded many – but the facts unite us.”
“Since Brexit, it feels like there is a bit of a window to redefine what Englishness means today – so we’re happy to be making our contribution now.”
The film was shot by DOP Ahmet Husseyin on 16mm Kodak film in locations across London. The 500T Kodak stock was push-processed to amplify the colour palette.
The soundtrack is a turbo-charged rearrangement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique by Twenty Below Music in collaboration with Gabriel Ness and NOISE NETWORK.
